Christmas time
by ArielBlog
Summary: Laurel and Frank are spending their first Christmas together. Tons of fluff


**A/N:**

**I will be appreciate, if you, guys, tell me about all my mistakes, because English is not my native language. I'm just learning! So your help will be very useful.**

It's Christmas Eve. Usually Laurel Castillo spends the winter break with her parents and her little brother (who is definitely not little already. Finn is fourteen and he is the most cursed teenager in the world!), but this time is going to be different. Laurel knows it surely. She doesn't, as always, see cottages along by the lake, which all belong to her father. There is no privacy fence, which ordinarily irritates her and like curtails her freedom. Finn doesn't run like a deer and scream every freaking second.

There is just soft music here. Probably, it's ABBA. And it's not a big, roomy hall with enormous Christmas tree, spangled and jeweled. She stands in the small homelike apartment and trims a tiny little tree of the size of table-lamp. And she doesn't need a gorgeousness, with which her mother always do everything. She can live without fancy guests and ocean of presents. And, of course, she will not be wearing sumptuous clothes – just a small black dress. She likes it more than all her expensive dresses in her wardrobe.

So, there is a little tree with one Christmas-tree set, subdued lighting in the pretty small living-room, one bottle of Champaign on the coffee table and ABBA music all around.

"Laurel, I'm home."

And if anyone will ask her right now about the Christmas spirit, she will smile patiently, like the parents are smiling toward their ingenuous child. Obviously, the man, who heaved in her sight, is her Christmas spirit.

"I bought tomatoes, salad, cinnamon… Generally, all things from your list." The snow sticks all over his jacket, and Laurel, coming close to him, smiles. Carefully she shakes the snowflakes off his shoulders and notices, that there is a lot of snow on his head too.

"Is there a blizzard outside, or something?" She laughs, trying to brush away the flakes of the snow from his hair.

"Hey, you were the one, who didn't want to come out into the street."

"Yes, and you know why? Because I'm smarter than you!.. Frank… Oh, come on!" Laurel tries to stand off the man, but he turns quicker and starts to tickle her. His hands make a dive under her bolero and his fingers at the same second run over her arms. Laurel laughs loudly, do her best to stand against him, but all her efforts are useless.

"So, who is smarter, miss Castillo?" Frank smirks and suddenly seizes her by the waist.

"You, mister Delfino, are definitely stronger," whispers Laurel, trying to catch her breath, like after the rush. "But about other things… I would argue."

Frank smiles and, letting the girl go, takes her by the hand.

"Thank you, Laurel."

"For what?" She wondered.

"For staying here with me… Spending the Christmas Eve." Frank looks at her face with something tender and soft. The man knows that feeling: first, it penetrates his heart and his soul, and then – all his life. And Frank is absolutely happy to experience a sensation of that feeling to Laurel. To the girl, who likes to behave like a brat sometimes (well… her parents did spoil her), but who is always ready to help, to support and to sympathize. "Speaking frankly, I haven't celebrated this holiday for a long time," he said.

"Really? Why?" Laurel raises the eyebrows.

"Well… I have no one to celebrate with. Christmas is a family celebration," he explains. "I lost my parents long time ago."

"Frank, I'm so sorry," her face awry with pain, unexpectedly seems to him so significant and dear. Her eyes are dimmed with tears, as if she is the reason, why the man lost his family.

"Laurel," he whispers, touching her cheeks, and a smile animates his face. "Why are you crying, girl?" Nobody ever called her _girl _with so much love. That simple _girl _suddenly means so much to her. And that _girl _means a world to him. Well, maybe not a world… a family. "It's not your fault." Frank folds Laurel to his breast and kisses her wild dark hair. Laurel sobs in his strong arms.

"You said _family, _Frank…" She raises her eyes in tears and looks at him timidly. "Did you… what did you mean?"

"I meant, Laurel, that for many years I was… I don't know, how to say it… like… lost. Well, not lost… I was foreign native. There were a lot of people around, every day, and a lot of students…"

"… every night," Laurel smiles ironically and then smirks. "What? I know about your special love to young woman students."

"There wasn't a special love… Just a distraction. And it all was before you." Frank frowns. "And I, actually, trying to say you something, lady."

"Sorry if I'm acting like possessive wife," Laurel laughs. "I do not jealous of my future husband."

"But I do," Frank answers straight-faced. "So… I was talking about you, by the way. With you for the first time in a long period I felt… myself. I mean, Laurel, it was you… A true hearted girl. And with that girl I could do anything… For that girl. And I don't need to pretend, to act… I can say whatever I want (even if I'll hear _you're a misogynistic asshole _in return), and I… o God, never did this before… I feel good with you. And I didn't want this to end. I want to come out into the street in the middle of the night to buy some products from your list… And I want to return home and to hear you singing along to your favorites songs… All I'm trying to say is how much I love you, Laurel. You're my family tonight. Tonight and, I hope, for the rest of my life."

Laurel gets near to his lips and gives him a kiss. She wants to be his family. She wants to sing along with ABBA and cook (even if she's suck at it) him. She wants to spend all Christmas Eves in his small apartment with tiny little tree. She wants to kiss Frank in entrance hall and to act like a possessive wife. Actually, she kind of wants to be his wife. For the rest of her life.

**A/N:**

**Btw, I'm a big fluff fan, and I love stories about domesticity, babies etc. Would you like to read Flaurel fluff on that subject? 'Cause I would be happy to write it!**


End file.
